Interesting Facts About The Constellation Leo

Interesting facts about Leo constellation lied on the Stars that made up this constellation. The brightest star of this constellation, alpha Leo, called Regulus (meaning: the little king), is a blue-white star (spectral type B7 V) of 1.35 mag.

When viewed with binoculars or small telescopes a wide companion of 8th mag is revealed.

At the tip of the lion's tail the beautiful blue-white main sequence star beta Leo, Denebola is located. Viewed through a telescope beta Leo seems to have an orange companion. But actually the two stars are far away from each other.

Another interesting facts about Leo the constellation is large number of meteor showers associated with this constellation. The most famous are the Leonids.

This shower radiates from the region of gamma Leo and can be seen form November 14-20; the maximum can be observed on November 17th. Although the hourly rate from 10 to 15 meteor seems to be small there is a cyclus of about 33 years with an enhanced activity. The next spectacular storm is predicted to take place in 1999.

The shower of the Alpha Leonids was first confirmed by Radio Meteor Project. The duration of this shower cover the period from January 13th to February 13th. From February 14th to April 25th the Beta Leonids are active. The maximum takes place around March 20th.

Other interesting facts about Leo the constellation:

This constellation is perceived as a horse in the Chinese Zodiac and, in Incan lore, was referred to as a Puma. The Lion was also the tribal sign of Judah and, in the Middle Ages, Leo was referred to as one of Daniel's lions.

In ancient times, the sound of thunder, when heard during the Sun's passage through Leo, was taken to herald the imminent death of some great personage.

Scientific facts about Leo constellation

New Rocky Planet Found In Constellation Leo

ScienceDaily (Apr. 10, 2008) — Spanish and UCL (University College London) scientists have discovered a possible terrestrial-type planet orbiting a star in the constellation of Leo.

The new planet, which lies at a distance of 30 light years from the Earth, has a mass five times that of our planet but is the smallest found to date. One full day on the new planet would be equivalent to three weeks on Earth.

The team of astronomers from the Spanish Research Council (CSIC) working with Dr Jean-Philippe Beaulieu, a visiting astrophysicist at UCL, made the discovery from model predictions of a new exoplanet (meaning planet outside our solar system) orbiting a star in the constellation of Leo.

Simulations show that the exoplanet, dubbed GJ 436c, orbits its host star (GJ 436) in only 5.2 Earth days, and is thought to complete a revolution in 4.2 Earth days, compared to the Earth’s revolution of 24 hours and full orbit of 365 days. On Earth, a full day (sunset to sunset) coincides quite closely with the rotation period.

On the new planet these two periods do not coincide, since the orbital translation period and the rotation period are very similar. For this reason, a full day on the new planet would take four planetary years, or roughly 22 Earth days.